REVIEW: Applejack and The Honest-to-goodness Switcheroo · 5:23am Aug 31st, 2016
I like Applejack.
more than Discord. he's been pushed back another week.
Applejack and The Honest-to-goodness Switcheroo
by G. M. Berrow
(they changed the title for the UK release. was it too exotic-sounding or something?)
First edition: July 2014
Back of book summary:
Applejack starts a diary to record all her hard work bucking fields at Sweet Apple Acres. Whenever her friends annoy her in the slightest, she writes about it. It feels good to vent! But when the book falls into the wrong hooves, Applejack finds herself in a real pickle!
This book starts in the middle of Applejack judging over a Ponyville pie-eating contest. There's some nice small moments with Cranky Doodle Donkey, Mayor Mare, and Lyra as they compete for the lead. with their mouths. Applejack has some unexpected inspiration and wants to write down something she learned in the Friendship Journal, since this is right in the middle of Season 4's continuity, even though the finale already aired. Meanwhile, she is informed by a pony named Blue Ribbon that Sweet Apple Acres has been named as a finalist in the Best Orchard in Equestria Contest. The judges will arrive on Friday to look over the place, so get everything ready!
no, it's not going to become Hot Fuzz, unfortunately.
Long story short, Applejack's friends come by the farm to help her, one each day. Since Applejack's all anxious about winning this important contest, she gets peeved at each pony's idiosynracies and inefficiencies. It's not a repeat of "Spike at Your Service", because her friends aren't BAD at helping, just slowing her down while she's in super-serious mode (WUT A TRYHARD). She blows off steam by complaining about her friends in her own seperate journal that she's started writing. 
You can guess where this is going. Wait, it was revealed in the book's official summary. Your guess doesn't count. 0 points. 
Right before the big day of judging, she realized that she didn't mean all those horrible things she'd written while stressed. Her friends had been helping her in ways she'd overlooked. Gotta make it up to them. BUT.... Rainbow Dash accidentally ends up with the private journal instead of the shared journal. oh no! OH NO! 
She stews over this for about a paragraph. the very next chapter, her friends have already shown up to forgive her.
I'm confused. the advertised conflict is over exactly when it began. I was sorta expecting something like "Ponyville Confidential" where everypony is mad for a little while, and she has to redeem herself. Makes sense by the usual storytelling rules, doesn't it? 
Actually, I'm not so sure anymore. For the sake of the moral, and fitting in with the atmosphere of MLP, I think it works fine like this, without milking it for extra drama and bitterness and arguing. The Mane 6 felt hurt, but they took it with a grain of salt and forgave her, knowing she was pretty stressed and had to vent her inner thoughts. AJ herself learns for herself that her venting wasn't really "honesty", because she was blinded by her own ambition. It's an interesting approach to the "element of honesty", which even the show writers seemed to quickly run out of ideas on.
and it's certainly a lesson that applies so well to both adults and children, when they eventually end up on the internet (getting their own Facebook at age 10, I'm assuming). you WILL read things by your friends you weren't supposed to see. and you'll no doubt be in Applejack's position yourself, writing nasty thoughts in the heat of the moment. so whichever end of this situation you're on, maybe you can empathize with the other side and be forgiving.
You're all forgiven!
so, you might not like this book if that cover description made you hope for an explosion of juicy drama. I can see how that'd be a lot more entertaining, but..... I think the book is a lot more true to the spirit of MLP by not going that route. Just this once, it feels a lot more uplifting to have these characters set a good example, rather than allow things to spiral out of control for the audience's amusement. it seems a little too cynical?
I think some people will disagree with me... and I still feel a little undecided myself. my head says this was flawed writing, but my heart says it's more genuine doing it this way. 
I skimmed over much of the plot, because it's predictable anyway, but there's still plenty to enjoy in this story along the way. it's pure slice-of-life Applejack, with lots of great little moments with her family and friends. I laughed so much when Apple Bloom held an "Alicorn tea party" with the Crusaders, and they needed Big Mac to play the part of Princess Cadance. Granny Smith goes digging in the attic, leading Applejack to rediscover her old cowpony doll from her childhood (awww!) which gives her a few moments of cute nostalgia between her workdays.
Oh yeah, Granny's in the attic because she finds the old journal that she wants to pass on to Applejack... which belonged to her mom (!!!) at AJ's age. Just some pages of sketches around the Acres, before she moved on to a new hobby. AJ only dwells on it for two paragraphs, but it was enough to make me start crying. We'll probably never see her parents in the show's canon, though there's plenty of epic fanfics that try to give them a backstory, but somehow a few lines describing a dusty sketchbook hit me harder than actually knowing who they were. 
There's such a slow, leisurely pace to the story, it does a great job of getting you into Applejack's head and riding her emotions here. It's understandable why she's getting so frustrated, yet at the same time it's very funny to watch her get more mad and impatient as the week goes on! And since it's fun to read her journal entries, this story works better as a book than an animated episode. Even if you disagree with me on the ending being a good fit, you'll probably find this book's build-up very enjoyable. unless it was just that much of a deal-breaker, but I'll understand.
bye!
BONUS:
Snowflake
I guess Berrow didn't know they'd renamed him Bulk Biceps in season 4? Snowflake was still a better name.
"You can do it, Lyra!" shouted Sweetie Drops from the audience. She waved a homemade flag sewn with a picture of Lyra's cutie mark--a golden lyre. Lyra smiled and waved back, mouth full. The two ponies were best buddies.
this was over a year before episode 100. they hadn't taken the next step to "best friends" just yet.
oh, you know I will... 
PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
Book 1 / Twilight Sparkle and The Crystal Heart Spell
Book 4 / Rarity and The Curious Case of Charity
Book 7 / Princess Celestia and The Summer of Royal Waves
Book 9 / Princess Luna and The Festival of the Winter Moon
Book 10 / Lyra and Bon Bon and The Mares from S.M.I.L.E.
On which page does AJ complain about Rainbow giving her gonorrhea
4183271
page 86
I remember in middle school, like end of grade 7 or something, kids came up with an "excellent" idea where they would dedicate a whole notebook to trash talking people they disliked. They were dubbed "slam books". I guess it was good for a time? I dunno. This kinda crap wasn't my thing. I mostly kept to myself. Then a few slambooks surfaced, probably stolen out of people's bags, and then shown to teachers. People were hurt, teachers pissed, and several courses of detentions were passed around.
Gold star!
As for the book and how AJ's friends are quick to forgive, yeah, pretty much the same sentiments. If it weren't a children's book I think showing some of AJ's friends having a little bit of inner conflict surface before ultimately forgiving her.
Also I have all these books. Frig. Why haven't I read them all yet? I stopped at the Rainbow Dash one with the zebra.
4183301
wow. kids gotta learn that this never ends well.
reminds me of when I heard of schoolchildren in some country keeping their own "Death Notes" of the people they didn't like, inspired by the anime. teachers and parents were furious when they found this out.
oof. I don't even know what I'll say about that one. it's just SO WEIRD
A+ for the early Who reference.
Hmm, yeah it's a toughie. I guess I'd have to read it, but it doesn't really seem to teach you how to handle this situation in real life. Not that that's necessary; a story can just as easily display an ideal, or a hope.
Still, most people, even close friends, are unlikely to really forgive you that soon. If you're on the other side of it, however, even if you forgive your friend right away what happens if they don't have a change of heart like AJ did? The ending seems to rely on both the mane six and AJ doing their morality homework, for the convenience of the other. It's very nice (and comfortable) for AJ that her friends don't take much offense, and it's very convenient (and comfortable) for them that AJ essentially (seems to, anyway, maybe I'm wrong) change her mind about her feelings of them. "You thought I was annoying, but I forgive you."--"Thanks. I don't actually think you're annoying."--"Thanks."
It's all very comfortable and, I guess, not very realistic. Which, you know, kids book and cartoon ponies. The idyllic nature of Equestria too--I'm not sure I can argue with that bit. But I think it might have been more useful (let alone interesting) for AJ, amidst her angry ramblings in the journal, to also state other feelings about her friends which will not just change. Feelings that, once out in the open, can't just go away and have to be dealt with somehow. What do you do when you learn your friend thinks you're ugly, or have a terrible fashion sense, or are naive or bad at conversation, or they observe idiosyncrasies you weren't aware of--and they know you know? How does that affect your relationship--how do you adjust? Most friendship begin as a safe haven, and all stay like that in one way or another--what happens when that's threatened or broken?
Anyway, I do like how the ending showcases the general virtuosity of the mane 6.
4198426
it seems conveniently quick, but I can still see it happening between very close friends (it's not like they ignore it, they do talk about it afterwards). I think the message here is that this IS how to handle the situation. both sides simply have to forgive each other. there's no magic trick, no special solution. they just gotta be honest to each other, and to themselves, and apologize.
I can think of some stupid fights I had with friends. some lasted a few minutes before we apologized and made up. a recent one went on for months without us talking to each other, but finally we just sort of started hanging out, and then talking again like nothing had ever happened. neither of us apologized out loud, but I think we both realized we didn't really hate each other (and understood that the other felt the same way).
so what I take away from this book is that forgiveness is a lot simpler than we think it is. it's not that the ponies are utopian, but that our real world tries to overcomplicate it with drama
we can't change others, but we can start by being kind ourselves, and maybe that'll be a good start.
(this reminds me of certain episodes that I believe teach the opposite of this, and I feel uncomfortable about them. that might be a whole can of worms i shouldn't open, though)
I disagree on this. not because it'd be too much story to feasibly pack into a kid's book, or that it seems anti-idyllic. actually, that kind of conflict is what the show already does, devoting entire episodes to exploring it, e.g. Applejack vs Rarity in the sleepover. they don't keep those disagreements secret, they let it out in the open, and hopefully work it out by the end of the episode.
this book focused on a different goal, a moral that hasn't been done in the show yet: negativity does not automatically count as honesty (just like we said when talking about critics). she's stressed out and anxious, so her complaints aren't her true feelings, even though they felt good at the time. they are trivial, and easily forgotten after a few days, and that's what makes it dishonest to blow up about them. she understands this truth right before the book is stolen, which is a writing decision I really respect.
It'd be the easy way out to make this a lesson of, "don't do THIS, or else THIS will happen," and then drama explodes (I remember a LOT of shows when I was a kid tried to do this exact same moral about secrets that way, arggh). but here Applejack realized what she did was wrong, before anything bad happens. this makes dreading the (assumed) fallout feel much worse, because she already feels guilty.
in other words, it couldn't be written as "HER vs THEM" but it has to be "AJ vs herself" to show the stronger moral lesson. if I look at it that way, the whole story is the real conflict, rather than the conflict being resolved in 3 pages like I had previously assumed.
now I feel more confident about liking this book, it doesn't seem flawed to me anymore.
4198483
Good point. Hmm. I think I was getting at a different kind of revelation between friends than what occurs often in the show, like in the sleepover. AJ and Rarity were open and frank with each other, yes, but they were commenting on characteristics they ultimately had to accept about the other. "I don't like your prissiness, but it has its uses." "I don't like your roughness, but it comes in handy." In order to accept each other as individuals and friends, they accept traits they don't like, while also seeing there's good in those traits.
But what I'm thinking about is learning your friend has thoughts about you which aren't wrong or immoral or which need to be accepted (they probably already have), but which either offer you uncomfortable revelations into yourself or are things you wouldn't like about yourself if true. Not criticism, but more like observations which attack your sense of identity and self. Like seeing yourself on camera for the first time.
So, for instance, maybe you think you have a great sense of humor, or are particularly clever, or that you're very good at helping people, or you take a lot of pride in appearing dignified. Then you learn your friends feel otherwise, not out of malice or disagreement or non-acceptance: they just see you with an outside perspective you don't have. Your lens is faulty, not theirs. Maybe they notice other things you would feel horribly insecure about. This is a more interesting conflict to me because you can't justifiably tell your friends to change their opinion, because they're correct. So it isn't about your friend learning to accept an annoying trait of yours which is morally neutral, but you learning to live with a less rosy-tinted view of yourself...maybe?
I dunno, maybe it's not really different. It feels different, though, in my head.
This is very true. Forgiveness isn't very complicated. It can be difficult, I think, because it's humbling. It's not that you have to try to move a building in order to forgive; more like (in most cases) a cinder block. The difficulty is because you don't want to move it. But forgiveness is the only thing that will truly free you from your hurt. Revenge of any sort never will.
Great point! I like that lesson, and I think it's one that really needs to be taught more. It's crucial to emotional maturity, recognizing there's a difference between feelings and reality.
4199224
I see what you mean now. kind of a complex lesson. I dunno, I think that might go against the spirit of the show. like it's the destructive side of friendship, rather than the positive side.
often in the episodes it's the opposite message, like when Pinkie assumes her own friends hate her when it's not true. embracing optimism over destructive self-doubt and cynicism.
4200675
I agree. Plus, it would make the conflict about everypony except AJ. Since it's her book, that's not really a good option.